The shampoo I brought along - "L'oreal Elseve Vita-Max Revitalising Shampoo" was really shitty and gave me lots of tangles - even just after towelling my hair dry. I have since migrated to Garnier Fructis Anti-Roos 2-in-1, which is excellent. I got it at 2 bottles for €5 at the market, which compares favourably to the €5.99 (offer price) in stores. How is it so cheap? A casual inspection of the bottle reveals that the shampoo is made in Poland. It makes no difference to me, since I can't read Dutch either. It is heartening to see that although the EU has not achieved total freedom of capital, labour or services, goods are still moving freely and helping to keep inflation down, all thanks to resourceful agents of arbitrage.

There's a €15 fine here for each bike light (front and/or back) that's not working at night. If you think that's bad, in Germany they impound your bike and you're not allowed to ride it anymore.

I see very few taxis in the day, but at night many appear, mostly in designated spots. Most of them look like converted normal cars - a lot of people must moonlight.

I saw a slot machine place called 'Fair Play Centers' (sic). Even if they abide by the principles of fair play, they sure won't offer a fair game.

It seems some Americans signed up for courses here, and when they came over they found out they were in Dutch. Hurr hurr.

One of my tutors was wearing a long sleeved blue-grey chequered shirt with the Byzantine two-headed eagle in black on the back. Wah.

It seems the sauce is spelled Piccalilly, not Piccadilly. Oops.

I found an Aldi (discount supermarket) at Amsterdamse Straatweg thanks to an address supplied by a certain someone, and indeed the things there are substantially cheaper than in normal places (for example, the Albert Heijn across the street), even if they are the only place anal enough not to round the final bill to the nearest 5 cents, which meant I finally got to see what a Euro cent coin looked like. However, the range there is very limited - they don't have normal Coke (only ersatz clones) or fresh meat, for example. Perhaps the other outlets have a larger selection, but I couldn't find them on the physical map I have, but with the aid of Maporama.com and the Het Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf Utrecht zone locator, I have a rough idea of how to proceed now.


I bought 2 huge almost-expired pork patties for €1. I ate the first with toast and fried onions and mushrooms and found it a bit too salty. Wondering how to use the other that evening (by the time I got to them, they were one or two days past the official expiry date, so I had to get rid of them quickly), I hit upon the idea of cutting it up for spaghetti sauce, and it worked perfectly.


Quotes:

[On a bad textbook and a question] It's quite easy - very easy actually. But it's very difficult. Kaspar and Streit made it very difficult. That's why it's an Open Book Exam.

[On exam strategies] Either you keep it clear and simple, or you come up with a brilliant answer we do not understand.

more'nee'tor'ring (monitoring)

[On office supplies] Sometimes I take stuff home because I need to use it for my work. At least that's what I'm telling my boss.

[Tutor: ***, you have a job as well. What's your on-the-job consumption?] I eat a lot of pizza.

You want to relate the development of the media to the growth of GNP? *makes splattering sound* Good luck, everybody.

You can come up with a policy recommendation for the Russian government. They're probably never gonna read your paper. 'Mr Putin, you're a nice guy, but it was not a good idea to control the media.'

These are the key vuh'rye'erbles (variables)

[On reviewing the literature] You want to find the state of the art (discipline)

[On no one wanting to present tutorial answers] I can probably actually sell this class to a game theorist for experiments, to see who will cave in first. (probably)

How many of you did the spreadsheet? *I raise my hand* One. That's my top score class... Either you have no room where you can use a computer or you are lazy. Neither is very good... In your portfolio you have 'academic skills', it sounds very nice, bu you can't use a spreadsheet. (this is my best scoring class)

You have quite bad luck for being the last group, because I get less specific with the hour.

This is besides the book and besides the lectures, and therefore also besides the exam, but I will tell it to you anyway because it is interesting.

If you live in an agrarian society and you leave the land and read Plah'to for three years, will you become more productive?